As rush hour came to a close on the evening of May 25, 1950, one of Chicago’s new fast, colorful, streamlined streetcars—known as a Green Hornet—slammed into a gas truck at State Street and 62nd Place. The Hornet’s motorman allegedly failed to heed the warnings of a flagger attempting to route it around a flooded underpass, and the trolley, packed with commuters on their way home, barreled into eight thousand gallons of gasoline. The gas erupted into flames, poured onto State Street, and quickly engulfed the Hornet, shooting flames two hundred and fifty feet into the air. More than half of the passengers escaped the inferno through the rear window, but thirty-three others perished, trapped in front of the streetcar’s back door, which failed to stay open in the ensuing panic. It was Chicago’s worst traffic accident ever—and the worst two-vehicle traffic accident in U.S. history.

Unearthing a forgotten chapter in Chicago lore, The Green Hornet Streetcar Disaster tells the riveting tale of this calamity. Combing through newspaper accounts as well as the Chicago Transit Authority’s official archives, Craig Cleve vividly brings to life this horrific catastrophe. Going beyond the historical record, he tracks down individuals who were present on that fateful day on State and 62nd: eyewitnesses, journalists, even survivors whose lives were forever changed by the accident. Weaving these sources together, Cleve reveals the remarkable combination of natural events, human error, and mechanical failure that led to the disaster, and this moving history recounts them—as well as the conflagration’s human drama—in gripping detail.

I realize that discussion of crashes and wrecks is always going to be controversial and not to everyone’s liking.

Ultimately, at least some good did come this horrific accident. Now, emergency exit doors that open outward are installed on transit vehicles all across the country.

In that sense, the 1950 disaster was every bit as important and historic as the 1903 Iroquois Theatre fire, which resulted in numerous safety improvements in theaters– but not in transit vehicles.

However, it seems that not all lessons from 1950 were learned right away. When the CTA began converting some of their PCC streetcars to one-man operation in 1951, their initial design did not include a rear door. It was only when the City of Chicago insisted on a rear door for emergency exit that one was added.

It does not appear as though the 1950 accident had any effect on CTA’s decision to eliminate streetcars and replace them with buses. That change in policy had already been put into effect with the hiring of general manager Walter J. McCarter in 1947.

I commend CERA for courageously scheduling this program. After all, they say that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

-David Sadowski

PS- We will follow up this post with two more this week featuring many classic photos of Chicago’s PCC streetcars in action.

The grand jury announces their findings after holding an inquest into the 1950 streetcar disaster.

Several nearby buildings burned to the ground in the aftermath to the accident.

CTA 7080 at State and 62nd in June 1950, near the site of the tragic collision between car 7078 and a gasoline truck, which took place on May 25.

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29 thoughts on “The Green Hornet Streetcar Disaster”

This is ONE meeting I would really like to be present for. I lived closeby and remember it very well. It’s unfortunate that it has to be held on a holiday weekend, when many people, including myself, will be traveling for the weekend.

I went to the meeting CERA had on ”The Green Hornet Streetcar Disaster” with the author Craig Allen Cleve. Mr. Cleve explained how he obtained information for this book and the attitude of the late 1940s and early 1950s. As a child I heard many stories about this accident. A part of Chicago’s history that wasn’t talked about.

Yes, that was an excellent meeting, wasn’t it? I especially like how the author was able to add a personal dimension to this tragedy, by getting in touch with actual survivors and their friends and relatives.

Some background from what I have read and heard over the years: The underpass in question (63rd/State) had flooded and streetcars were being rerouted south on State-thru 62nd Pl loop-north on State-west of 59th-south on Wentworth-east on 69th-south on State and reverse. A supervisor was at State/59th watching over this. The switch into 62nd Pl loop, which was a lever switch, had been wedged “open” so all cars would enter the loop. At the time of this occurrence, the water had gone down to passable levels, and a supervisor who had been at 63rd walked up to 59th and told the supervisor there to tell the next southbound to go straight. Now this was in the days before radios, and apparently nobody thought about the switch being blocked open. Next SB came along, the 59th supervisor did as he was told to do and told motorman he could go straight. Motorman did so, making a stop at 61st (where a late friend of mine got off the car), then continued on, expecting switch to be closed for straight move. Being that the street was wet, apparently he did not notice what position the switch was in until he was almost on it. The car swung left and hit the fuel tank (not the cargo tank) of a moving northbound truck. The impact derailed the car, which then swung completely around because of the inertia of the truck pulling the front end north. This is why the pictures do not show the truck the streetcar hit, as it is a short distance further north, while the streetcar is against the east curb. In any event, the truck driver apparently survived, while the impact caused the truck’s fuel tank to puncture and the gasoline to come in thru vents in the front of the streetcar, spraying the motorman and front part of the car.

As an aside, in the late 70’s a couple of old-timers at the main shops told me that the car that was almost broken in half after derailing at State and Root around the same time was repaired using parts of the frame of the fire victim. This would make sense, as most of the damage was above the floor from the fire, while the safety island at Root St basically bent the frame into a “V” which would have been very difficult to straighten out, but was apparently at least partially done by shackling the ends of the car to two line poles at the shop and pulling the middle back!

Your post awakened a few of the rumors I heard as I did my research for “The Green Hornet Streetcar Disaster”. There was a rumor at the Clark/Devon barn that 7078 was supposed to be the first car to go through the viaduct, but it was unsubstantiated. Yours is the second time I’ve heard it — and from a different source.

I hope you’ll find a copy of the book and give it a read. You’ll find a few discrepancies in the tale you’ve heard and the one I researched, including:

1). Eyewitnesses at the Coroner’s Inquest testified that the trolley did not stop at
61st St.;
2). The driver of the gas truck did not survive, and likely died on impact. The
driver’s side of the cab was pulverized;
3). Both a supervisor and flagger were present from about 2:45 p.m. until the time of
the accident. It was the supervisor who “plugged” the switch at about 2:30 p.m.
There is no evidence that either left the scene;
4). The impact flattened the truck’s “side saddle” gas tank, which exploded. The
truck jackknifed, and that action caused a gash to be cut in the first tank on the
semi-trailer. The second tank was undamaged;
5). So much fuel leaked from the first tank that it flowed over the curb and set fire to
a tenement on the east side of State St. In all, five buildings were completely
gutted by flames, two others were damaged, and more than 100 persons were
displaced.

Part of the reason I did the leg work for the book was to dispel rumor and create an account of the event with a clear basis in fact. Even so, I continue to learn more about the story as people come forward with information. Thanks for your post.

[…] that part of the 7078 body (damaged in a May 25, 1950 crash with a gasoline truck, the so-called “Green Hornet Streetcar Disaster” of the book by the same name) was actually used to put another car together that was seriously […]

[…] May 25, 1950 catastrophic crash between Chicago PCC 7078 and a gasoline truck, which we wrote about here. The collision occurred because the operator of 7078 thought he had been cleared to go straight, […]

Like you said, I never met him. My father told me stories and Ive seen many pictures of Mel. After Pearl Harbor Mel enlisted in the Navy and served during WWII. He died on my father’s 8th grade graduation night. My Dad had asked Mel to stay at home that evening to attend his graduation ceremony. Mel knowing he had 4 boys to support decided that he would drive that evening and earn some extra money to buy his boy’s new shoes. They never saw him alive again.

There was an official investigation, which would be a matter of public record. Newspapers back then often listed people’s names and even their addresses in such cases. Or, you might ask the author of The Green Hornet Streetcar Disaster.

Joni – the last page of my book, “The Green Hornet Streetcar Disaster”, contains a list of the 33 victims. As David Sadowski has suggested, newspapers did in fact print lists of the dead and injured, including their age, race, and home address. I found two of my survivors that way — one who was still living at the same address more than 50 years later! If you don’t have access to Chicago newspaper archives, I would be happy to reproduce that list for you in this forum, when I have a spare moment.

Thank you very much. I would greatly appreciate if you could provide the list. Not sure of last names, but they would be of Greek origin and possibly any variation of Panasoupoulos, Pannos, Pannas, Panas (and possibly spouses, which would also assumably be Greek)—you get the picture! Also, do you know if there is such a thing as any mass grave–such as ones for the OLA victims?……or were they all buried by their individual families?

Joni–
The only Greek-sounding name I recall was Povilas Abelkis, who was a survivor. But I believe he was a Lithuanian refugee. Other than that, no names approximate the ones you mentioned, neither among victims or survivors.

Thank you very much for checking names for me, as I’m sure you are very busy. I grew up on the West Side and attended Ryerson–not too far from where I understand you’ve been teaching. By the way, I’ve ordered your book and look forward to reading it and learning of and sharing some Chicago history that I never even knew existed. Thank you for that.

I devoted a couple pages (100-101) to the crash and its aftermath in my book Chicago Trolleys. I purchased a couple original medium format negatives, showing the crash site. As far as I know, these two pictures were previously unpublished.

On page 101, I have a press photo showing 14-year-old Beverly Clark, who received minor injuries. I have no idea if she is still living, but if so, she would be in her early 80s.

Hey David,
Beverly Clark was my “white whale”. I searched hard for her, and she would have been about 70 when I began my research. I found a lot of Beverly Clarks, and a few born in 1936 or so in Chicago who had married and changed their names. I believe the real Beverly Clark died relatively young in the 1970’s or 80’s.

A cousin of my dad witnessed the crash and was interviewed. Dad’s uncle owned a business at either 6255 or 6257 S State. I don’t know if their building was one of the ones destroyed in the fire. I’ve always been curious to see the exact spot on a map. I have been trying to find an older map that actually shows 62nd place as well.

There’s a pretty good photo of the east side of State St. after the fires were struck out in the book “Chicago: City on the Move”, co-authored by rail fan Bruce Moffat and two others. If I can dig up another from my personal stash, I’ll post it here.

Thanks Craig. That relative of mine was Peter Simadis. His family owned the tavern at 6255. I just found his account of the crash in the book, “Darkest Hours” by Jay Robert Nash. According to that account the tavern was burning.

If I recall correctly, there were seven buildings on the east side of State. All seven caught fire, and five of the seven were gutted. There was a narrow, vacant lot between the fifth and sixth structures, and that seemed to have served as a sort of fire break for the sixth and seven houses.

The largest of the seven buildings was a tenement at 6241-43 S. State, which housed more than 50 tenants. Its walls collapsed and it was reduced to rubble. There was a used appliance shop about two doors down which pulled its merchandise on to State St. in an effort to save it. The next day, there were stoves and wringer washers on the sidewalk.

By one account, there was a tavern on the first floor (or basement) of the tenement. An early photo, taken as the building was burning, showed an advertisement for Atlas Prager beer painted on the side wall.